One million dollars of shredded currency was used as the medium for a series of 10 sculptures by Sebastian ErraZuriz and Thomas McDonell. Each of the 10 sculptures was offered for sale after the New York exhibition, at the price of 100,000 dollars per sculpture.

ErraZuriz and McDonell purchased the shredded bills from the United States Bureau of Printing and Engraving, and created the work after forming a partnership and entering into a contract that guaranteed appropriate distribution of all income derived from the Million Dollar Project.

The sales from the sculptures were intended to allow the artists to recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in their art education and to palliate future unemployment. The United States Treasury Department, by way of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, stipulates that currency residue cannot be sold as “commercial art”. ErraZuriz and McDonell insist, however, on their right of expression with artistic purpose and further on their right to make a living from their art.